The Worldship The Madness
by betawho
Summary: The 8th Doctor answers a distress call from a worldship where the occupants are going mad and spontaneously combusting. They say it is all the fault of a baby. But who are these invisible aliens hiding in the walls?
1. Chapter 1

Candlelight flickered in the console room. A soft jazz number played in the background. Up on the dais the Doctor's legs poked out from under the console, his feet bobbing merrily as he tinkered. The soft background thrum of the Tardis echoed in the vast, librarylike space.

The bleeping of a distress call shattered the peace. The Doctor bolted upright and hit his head on the underside of the console. With an oath he jumped up and slapped irritably at the volume control, muting the siren.

He deftly worked the controls, locating the origin of the distress call. "Hmm," he checked the readouts, "Automated distress beacon, no further information." He stared up at the the old fashioned monitor which showed a large spherical ceramic ship rolling placidly through space. The ship had a few nicks and dings and some smudges of meteor collisions, which only enhanced its resemblance to a cue ball. There was no apparent damage, no hostile attacking aliens.

"Interesting." With a grin, he kicked the toolbox underneath the console and started setting coordinates.

The Tardis materialized in a long corridor. The Doctor stepped out, a slender man in a bottle green coat and cravat, he looked around. The corridor was deserted. He stuffed his hands in his pants pockets and did a quick turn, then set off in a random direction.

The ship walls were the flat gray color of potter's clay with a wide strip of energized crystals in the ceiling providing light. Potted plants dotted the corridor at regular intervals, giving it the look of a college campus, or a doctor's office. The Doctor inhaled the air that had that wonderful earthy smell of a countryside after the rain.

He leaned forward to examine the wall, scratching at it with his fingernail. He pressed hard with his thumb. The wall gave, leaving a shallow thumbprint.

He looked up at the sound of footsteps.

A young man in a yellow and black uniform approached down the corridor, oblivious to the Doctor. The Doctor watched as he knelt in front of a plain section of wall and used a spray bottle to mist a portion of the wall a dark gray. He returned the bottle to a loop on his belt and drew a machete, which he stabbed into the wall, cutting out a circle as big as his head, mitering the cut so the circle couldn't fall back into the wall. He pushed his fingertips into the clay and lifted out a circle, a good six inches thick, from the wall and set it aside.

Inside the wall was an easily recognizable array of electronics.

The Doctor casually walked up behind the boy, munching on jelly babies. "What's the trouble?" he asked.

The boy turned and looked him over with preternatural calm. "I don't know you," he said, disinterested.

"I'm the Doctor. Have a jelly baby?"

"No. Thank you." The boy turned back to his work.

"So what's going on?" The Doctor looked over his shoulder.

The boy flicked some switches inside the circuitry and all the power lights came on, lines humming. "The captain said to cut all external communication lines until the baby is found." He picked up his machete and slipped its wide metal blade in behind the mess of electrical wires.

"Wait!" The Doctor lunged forward.

The boy yanked the machete, severing the wires.

Blue lightning exploded from the circuitry. An aura of crackling blue energy surrounded the boy, he jerked. The Doctor was blown backward by the explosion.

The young technician calmly picked up the circle of clay and fitted it back into its niche over the burned out mess of wires. He didn't seem to notice anything odd had happened. He used his thumbs to smooth the cut edges of the clay back together and turned to the Doctor. "I'll take you to the captain if you like. He'll help you with whatever your business is." He retrieved his knife, settled the spray bottle back in its loop, and wiped his hands on a towel before tucking it back in his pocket.

That was different, the Doctor thought. Usually he was grabbed and hauled up before the authorities whether he like it or not. This young man seemed completely indifferent, almost detached. Mystified, the Doctor waved a hand for him to lead the way.

The boy wasn't much of a conversationalist. In fact, he seems singularly uninterested in why the Doctor was there.

The Doctor filled in the time examining the architecture. He saw a vertical rod traveling along a track parallel to the wall, misting water on the walls, keeping them from drying out completely. Fascinated, he stuck his finger into the spray, tasted it, plain water. What an unusual way to maintain walls.

He'd been aboard more spacecraft that he cared to remember but this was the first one that looked like it was made of adobe. In fact it reminded him a great deal of Zanak. They passed by open archways leading to a high ceilinged open courtyard, plants hung in baskets from hooks in the walls. The artificial light in the courtyard simulated sunlight.

Around the second corner they met their first people, a couple of guards. "Hold! State your business!" They were clothed in uniforms similar to the boy's except that theirs were red and sported weapons holsters instead of a tool belt. And they were edgy. "Jayden, what are you doing down here?" the senior of the two asked.

"Severing communications lines. Captain's orders," the boy answered. The Doctor stood still and watched. Something very unusual was going on. Jayden was answering the guard in a flat, almost rote voice, devoid of all expression or life. While the other guard, the one not talking, was as agitated as Jayden was listless. He virtually hopped back and forth, his eyes darting everywhere with an increasingly maniacal gleam in them.

"His knife!" the antsy guard shrieked. He launched himself at Jayden. The boy was knocked to the ground as the guard pounced on him. Jayden sat placidly, leaning back on his elbows as the frantic guard, laying across him, scrabbled Jayden's knife out of its scabbard and held it down to the floor, beating it with the butt of his gun as if it were a poisonous snake, shrieking unintelligibly all the while.

Jayden exploded upward in a gout of fire. The Doctor and the other awestruck guard were thrown backwards by the force of the flames.

When they looked back, all that remained of Jayden and the guard was a black scorch mark on the floor and a pile of melted metal that had once been the knife.


	2. Chapter 2

The surviving guard stared at the Doctor with wide, horrified eyes then fled down the corridor in the opposite direction.

The Doctor knelt, picked up a pinch of ash and let it sift from his fingertips. "Spontaneous combustion?"

He heard guards come thundering back down the corridor led by the guard who had fled moments ago. "Get him!"

The Doctor sped around the nearest corner and ran smack into someone.

"This way." She grabbed his hand and hauled him down the hallway, around corners, through deserted courtyards, and finally into a small dark closet where she shoved him back behind a rack of clothing. "Stay there!" She ducked outside and he could hear her through the door. "A stranger! Why is he here? Who is he?"

"Which way did he go!"

"Through there!"

The trample of guard footsteps rushed off as quickly as they'd come. A few seconds later the woman ducked back into the closet. "They're gone."

The Doctor struggled out of the tangle of clothes. "Thank you."

"Who are you? Did you get my distress call?"

"I'm the Doctor. And yes. What is happening here?"

"Everything is crazy. The captain has declared martial law. He has all the guards out hunting for my sister and her baby."

"Why does he want them?"

The scramble of men returned, barking orders outside. The Doctor grabbed the woman and pulled her back through the rack of clothes.

A guard ripped the door open. He kicked over the cleaning supplies and looked under the hanging clothes for any sign of feet. Not finding any, he slammed the door and barked more orders. "Keep looking. They've got to be around here somewhere." A commotion, scrambling, and the discharge of a weapon, sent all the boots tramping off to see what happened.

Behind the clothes rack the Doctor dumped off the pile of clothes that he'd tossed over himself and his companion and unbraced his feet from the opposite wall. They both stood up. "Good thing this is a small closet."

The woman nodded, shaking. "You have to help us."

"Why does the captain want your sister?"

"He doesn't really. He wants the baby."

"Why?"

"An old legend. He thinks if he can kill little Joshia everything will go back to normal." The Doctor raised an eyebrow. She explained. "The legend says that every few generations a child is born which causes the Madness. The captain thinks that Joshia is that child. But he can't be. The legend also says that the mother is always the first to die. And Klayisha is very much alive. When she realized what the captain was thinking she took Joshia and hid." She grabbed the Doctor's hands. "You have to help us."

"Do you know where your sister is?" The woman nodded eagerly. "Good. Two corners down from where you found me to the right is a large blue box. Get your sister and meet me there. You'll be safe inside until we can figure out what's behind all this. I'll distract the guards."

Just as the Doctor's hand closed on the doorknob an intercom squealed to life in the hallway outside.

"Citizens. I am pleased to announce that the child and it's treasonous mother have been caught. The executions will be held in Centerdome in three hours time. All guards report to duty stations. B-troop report to Centerdome for crowd control. Captain out."

Shadia dropped her face in her hands. "Oh no!"

"What did he mean by "treasonous mother"?"

Shadia's head flew up and she glared hotly at the Doctor. "Klayisha is no traitor. Her husband is Joshia's father. I don't care what the captain tries to make everyone think. If Keldon hadn't been one of the first taken with the madness I could prove it."

"Genetic tests?" the Doctor asked.

Shadia nodded. "But Keldon went mad and threw himself into the disintegrator." Her lips trembled but her jaw remained firm. "There's nothing left to test."

The Doctor laid a hand on her shoulder. "What's important now is to rescue your sister. Do you know where she would be taken?"

"Yes."

"Show me."


	3. Chapter 3

They ran down corridors, skirted doorways, and mingled with the crowds to avoid the guards. Fortunately, the civilians' off-duty dress was eclectic enough that the Doctor didn't especially stand out.

"There." Shadia plastered herself against the wall and jerked her thumb to indicate something in the cross corridor beyond. The Doctor leaned out around her and looked down the hall. Sure enough there was a large imposing door flanked by four guards, two on either side of the corridor.

The Doctor jerked back and pointed at a handleless door across the hall. "What's in there?"

"Automated broadcast equipment for Centerdome."

The Doctor nodded and slunk across the corridor looking both ways. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and buzzed the side of the door frame. Nothing happened. He tried several other areas around the door. Still no luck.

"It's always the hard way," he grumbled to himself.

With another look up and down the corridor he reset the sonic screwdriver and waved it over the door frame until it pinged at him. He jammed his fingers into the clay wall where the screwdriver indicated. He wiggled his fingers. "Ah! There."

"You! Stop!"

Shadia and the Doctor both jerked around at the command. A teenage girl, 13 or 14 years old, came barreling around the corner from the direction of the guarded room. She had a guard's phaser rifle pointed at her own chest and was repeatedly shooting herself with it. It seemed to have no effect except to make her grin.

"Stop thief!" A guard came running around the corner after the girl, intent on getting his gun back.

"Stop him," Shadia whispered urgently, pointing at the guard.

Without a second thought the Doctor stuck out his leg and tripped the guard. The man went sprawling.

Before the guard could recover Shadia ran over, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and dragged him on his bottom over to where the Doctor was working on the door.

The circuitry behind the wall sparked, the Doctor jerked his fingers out of the clay and stuck them in his mouth. But the door opened. He waved Shadia and her prisoner inside.

He quickly rubbed away the evidence of his tampering and ducked into the room behind them. He shouldered the doors closed manually.

Inside, automated cameras were lined up at a large picture window looking down on a huge circular room beyond. The Centeredome. The Doctor crouched down below the windowsill and shuffled over to his companions. Shadia propped her prisoner up against the wall.

The guard shook his head groggily and looked up. "Shadia! What are you.... What is going on around here? First everyone goes crazy. Then Klayisha and the baby disappear. Now your own uncle orders them executed. It doesn't make any sense. Who's he?"

"He's a friend, Jor. He answered my distress call."

"Distress call? Great." He ran his hands through his hair. "Now all we need is a ghost and we'll be set," he muttered sarcastically.

"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor introduced himself. He sat back on his haunches. "Tell me. Are your people normally so resistant to energy discharge?"

Shadia and Jor both looked up and answered. "No."

Jor admitted slowly, "But I've seen just about everything these last few weeks."

The Doctor waddled over to the display window and looked out. To their right, a quarter turn around the dome, was a large balcony, obviously used for ceremonial occasions. It was right behind the guarded room.

"That's where they'll do it." Shadia whispered from behind him. "Up high so everyone can see."

On the floor below, red-garbed guards were already busy policing the growing crowd. There was a tussle and another person spontaneously combusted, charring the wall behind them.

"How long has it been like this?"

"Three weeks, maybe four." Shadia answered.

"Ever since Joshia was born," Jor interjected.

Shadia turned on her friend. "You can't believe Joshia is responsible for this! He's only a baby!"

"I know, Shadia. I know. But it is damned coincidental."

"That's just what the captain wants everyone to think."

"He raised you, Shadia. You and Klayisha both. You can't think he wants to do this."

"All I know is that if Klayisha or I ever had a child, our child would become captain and we would be regents in uncle's place!"

"You can't think he's doing this to remain in power!" Jor said in disbelief. "He hates being captain."

"All I know is that he's mad. As mad as everyone else here." She waved a hand at the milling crowd below.

"All this is going to be academic in a little more than an hour," the Doctor interrupted. "Jor, do you think you could get the guards away from Klayisha's door?"

Jor shook his head. "No chance. The guards have been ordered not to move for anything. They didn't even offer to help me get my gun back from that girl." He grimaced.

"Can you get into the room?" The Doctor asked. "Or you, Shadia?"

Shadia grimaced. "I might be able to, since she's my sister."

"Good." The Doctor turned to Jor. "Are there any guards inside?"

Jor frowned in thought. "Yes. Two. I think. They didn't want to take the chance that Klayisha'd go mad and try to jump off the balcony."

Shadia grunted. "Kill them, but mustn't let them commit suicide," she said sarcastically.

"I didn't give the orders."

"I know. I know."

"How thick are the floors?" The Doctor asked, emptying his pockets.

Shadia shrugged. "A meter, a meter and a half?"

"Any power conduits?" he asked, sorting his treasure: a crumpled candy wrapper, a yo-yo, a spool of fishing line, a safety pin, and the sonic screwdriver.

Shadia shook her head. "Power conduits are forbidden this close to the domes. Everything is on independent power."

"Good." The Doctor scooped his treasures back into his pockets. "What's above here?" He stirred his finger at the ceiling.

"Dining facilities. A cafeteria." Jor said, he caught onto the Doctor's plan and sat up straighter. "The room above Klayisha's is a larder. I remember joking with the owner that if he didn't quit piling up so many boxes they'd fall through into the dome. And his restaurant should be closed. Laris would never miss something like this." He waved his hand out the window.

"How do I get there?"

Jor gave the Doctor directions. "I can probably borrow a gun from one of the guards since mine was stolen. Once we're inside we can disable the interior guards. But cutting through the ceiling with a rifle is going to be noisy. The guards outside are sure to hear."

"Shadia." The Doctor waved her over to the wall beside the doorway. "If I show you how to jam the lock do you think you can remember?"

Shadia nodded. The Doctor dug a chunk of clay out of the wall with his fingers.

"Oh!" Shadia gasped. "Doctor, you can't..." she trailed off when he turned to look at her. "Sorry. Force of habit. We've always been taught never to damage the walls. Go ahead." The Doctor nodded and continued with the lesson.

"You got it?" he asked a couple of minutes later.

Shadia went over the procedure in her head. "Yes. Disconnect the red crystal then double back the other three wires."

"Right." He turned back to include Jor in the discussion. "Give me time enough to reach the larder then go in." He waited until they nodded, then shouldered open the door and ducked out.

The coast was clear. He stuck his hands at his pockets and strolled casually around the corner whistling softly to himself. He sauntered right past the guards.

Around the next corner he broke into a run. He'd have to go almost all the way to the outer shell before he could spiral back in toward the restaurant and the larder.

He had almost reached the turning point when he turned a corner and ran into two feral looking guards. Heads drawn in, shoulders hunched, eyes obviously insane, they were standing chortling over the bodies of five of their comrades, which they'd piled in a heap.

"Look, another one. Oh what a prize he'll be." The two lifted their rifles. "I get his horns," one claimed.

"It depends on which one of us bags him," his companion argued. He raised his rifle and fired. The Doctor whipped in a circle and ran, coattails flapping.

Down one corridor and around another corner. The Doctor lifted his hand in his mouth and projected a duck call around the other corner. Trying to throw off his pursuers.

"Listen," one of the hunters exclaimed. "What was that?"

"Ignore it. This way. We're after bigger game."

The Doctor flattened himself against the wall beside the door. First came the rifle, then the hunter, crouched low and scanning the room. He just started turning toward the Doctor when the Doctor felt himself being pulled backwards into the clay wall. The wall closed around him as if he were sinking into a pudding.

The last thing he heard was a muffled, "Where'd he go?"


	4. Chapter 4

When the Doctor opened his eyes he found himself floating upright in an energy corridor. Five beams of focused energy poured out from one end of the corridor, swirled around him outlining the force bubble that protected him, and streamed off unobstructed into the distance.

He wasn't alone.

A virtually invisible man was standing across the narrow corridor in front of him. The only visible parts of the man were the golden highlights of his features reflecting the energy beams and a faintly luminous rainbow-hued shadow behind him.

"You aren't one of the crew," the wraith accused. "Your energy patterns are different."

"No. I'm the Doctor," the Doctor agreed. "Who are you?"

"I am Ashtroth. An engineer of this ship. Why are you here?"

"I came in answer to a distress call."

"Are you here to save my child?" he asked.

"_Your_ child?"

"Yes. His mother is keeping him hidden. She believes I will take him from her."

"Would you?"

The shadowy form nodded. "Yes. But only to save his life." The Doctor could hear the distress in the man's voice. "I have no wish to separate the child from his mother. With her help we may be able to stop the Madness. But if the child is not found soon he will starve!"

The Doctor waved to how the invisible man was now standing in the path of the energy beams, they were passing through him and he didn't even seem to notice.

"The baby feeds on energy like you do," the Doctor guessed.

"Yes," Ashtroth answered. "We engineers can generate and focused energy through our bodies. That is how we navigate and propel the ship. The child's mother cannot provide him with the energy he needs."

The Doctor nodded. "I know where they are. If we're going to save them we have to get to Laris' Restaurant. Do you know where that is?"

"Yes." Ashtroth took off at a run down the corridor. The Doctor's bubble raced along behind him as if towed.

*

Shadia and Jor stood before the doors to Klayisha's prison. "Would you deny me the right to see my own sister before her execution?" Shadia demanded in outrage.

The guard stood at rigid attention, eyes forward. "I have my orders, ma'am."

"Orders my uncle gave you, soldier. I am the captain's firstborn. After my sister and her son are executed it will be _my_ child you answer to. Do you realize what that means?"

The guard began to sweat. "Yes, ma'am."

"Come on, Kur," Jor wheeled. "She just wants to see her sister one last time. What harm is there in that? It's not like there's anything she can do. Guards inside, you out here, the only way out a 30 foot plunge into the forum...

"If one of you will loan me your gun I'll even stand guard myself. What could it hurt?"

Kur looked down at the glowering woman beside him and gnawed on his lip. "Nate, give him your gun." The guard nodded his subordinate over then opened the door when Jor was armed. "I'm sorry about all this, ma'am," he whispered to Shadia as he held the door open.

"I know," Shadia whispered back. "I am too."

Kur closed the door behind them and Jor and Shadia immediately turned to take down the two guards inside. But the men were already down, lying in the corner, blue-faced, with their hands wrapped around each other's throats.

"Klayisha!" Shadia cried happily and went to embrace her sister. But she stopped. Klayisha was sitting, tears rolling down her face, rocking an empty cradle.

*

"This is as far as we can go in the tunnels." Ashtroth stopped and stared at the clay wall as if listening. "The way is clear." He reached forward an invisible hand and began pushing himself into the wall. The clay parted to admit him, like water parting before a human shaped bubble. The Doctor's bubble followed behind him.

"Oh no, not again." The Doctor raised his hands and braced himself.

Outside in the corridor, once more standing on his own two feet, the Doctor turned to look at the smooth clay wall he'd just passed through. He ran a hand down the surface. "How do you manage that?" he asked curiously.

"We can polarize the particles in the wall making them repel or attract each other. It gives us free access to any part of the ship."

"So that's why you keep the walls damp," the Doctor commented, delighted.

"Yes. The water acts as a medium. This way, Doctor."

The Doctor turned toward the voice and suddenly realized that he was alone. At least, he thought he was alone, until he saw the faint, luminescent humanoid shadow skimming along the wall, leading him down the corridor.

The shadow halted abruptly at the end of the corridor. The Doctor didn't stop fast enough and crash right into an invisible, but very solid, back.

"Sorry."

"No need."

"I assume you're absorbing the light that should be reflecting off your skin. And that's why I can't see you," the Doctor commented.

"Yes. I apologize for the inconvenience. But the crew doesn't react well to our presence. Especially at times like these."

"What about your shadow?" the Doctor asked, glancing pointedly at the opalescent swirl on the wall behind him.

The shadow shrugged. "My body naturally refracts light. There's nothing I can do about it. I can no more control my shadow then you can yours, Doctor." The voice said wryly. "We'll just have to hope no one notices." The voice became serious again. "Laris's restaurant is directly across the square." The shadow pointed. "What now?"

Just then they heard muffled rifle fire from inside the restaurant. A couple of passersby looked up in worry at the sound but hurried away. With the wave of madness sweeping the ship no one was going to investigate if they didn't have to.

"That's our cue." The Doctor sprinted across the plaza. He tried to shove open the glass restaurant doors. They were locked. "Great." Impatiently he jammed his fingers into the clay beside the door and tripped them open. "Come on."

Inside they followed the sound of scrambling and the smell of smoke. In the freezer they found a man-sized hole charred into the floor.

"Doctor?" Jor's voice called up urgently from below.

The Doctor peered down into the hole. "I'm here."

"We've got to hurry. They're trying to break down the door."


	5. Chapter 5

The Doctor could hear muffled pounding.

"Klayisha won't move. And there's nothing in here to stand on, much less pile up. How we going to reach the ceiling?" Jor asked. The ceiling in the room below was a good 15 feet high. Well beyond arm's reach.

"Hold on." The Doctor whipped his sonic screwdriver out and used it to cut the metal bar off of one of the metal storage racks. "About time this was good for something," he muttered under his breath as he worked. He pulled out his spool of fishing line and gave the end to Ashtroth. "Here. Tie this around that box over there." He began pulling handfuls of line off the reel.

While Ashtroth was busy with the box the Doctor grabbed a large can off the shelf and cut off the top of the can, dumped out the vegetables inside, cut off the bottom and tied his end of the fishing line securely around the middle of the cylinder.

He laid the metal bar across the hole and laid the fishing line across the center of it.

"Here." The box with the line tied to it floated over to the Doctor. The Doctor nodded down the hole and Ashtroth lowered the box down into the room below.

"I'm coming down," the Doctor called.

He stuck his foot into the can cylinder and lowered himself down into the hole. The box rose as a counterweight and lowered the Doctor gently to the floor. "Shadia." The Doctor waved her over to him. "You first." He helped her get her foot into the can over his then removed his foot and watched her start rising toward the ceiling.

The door was still being battered, it sounded as if they'd found something to use as a ram. The Doctor ran over to the teary faced woman who looked like Shadia, she sat listlessly in a chair by a cradle. He helped her up by the shoulders. "Here, Jor. Take her." Jor ushered her over to where the can was lowering back into the room.

The Doctor turned to the crib.

At first glance it appeared empty, until the Doctor saw the wrinkled sheet shift slightly. And saw the faint, colorful shadow on the back wall of a chubby baby kicking its feet in the air.

The Doctor pulled the corners of the sheet up from under the mattress and wrapped them around the invisible baby. When he turned Jor was just lifting up off the floor. And the door was beginning to bulge.

"Hurry!" Shadia gestured frantically. Jor heaved himself out of the hole and kicked himself free of the can.

Quickly, hand over hand, Shadia lowered the can back down to the Doctor. Just as the Doctor thrust his foot into the can, the door crashed open and the guards rushed in.

"Shoot him!" ordered an authoritative silver haired man in the background.

There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The Doctor was suspended halfway to the ceiling in plain view.


	6. Chapter 6

Jor raised his rifle and aimed down through the hole to give the Doctor some covering fire.

"No!" Shadia jerked his arm aside. "You'll hit the baby!"

A barrage of laser fire glanced out and hit the Doctor. To no visible effect. The Doctor, holding the baby, rose up to the ceiling and scrambled free of the can. He thrust the now glowing baby at Shadia and severed the fish line with his sonic screwdriver. The box and can crashed and clattered to the floor below.

"Come on." The Doctor grabbed Klayisha's hand and followed Ashtroth's shadow back across the plaza to the clay wall.

A hand print pushed itself into the wall and a section of the wall gathered itself away to form a rough arched entry.

"Wait." Ashtroth, partly highlighted by the energy beams behind the wall, stepped forward into the beams. They speared harmlessly through him. He concentrated for a second, speaking along the lines to his fellow engineers. The energy beams shut off. "Quick, inside," his again disembodied voice ordered.

The Doctor herded everyone inside as the soldiers came trampling into the plaza. The wall closed behind them.

"That was close." Shadia whooshed in relief. The Doctor could hear the baby giggling and chortling.

Slowly the oppressive darkness began to lighten. Ashtroth stood in the center of the tunnel, fingers steepled, head bowed in a meditative pose. They could tell because his body gradually began glowing, faintly at first, then with a stable mellow gold, bright enough for them to see by. He lifted his head. "Give me the child."

Jor and Shadia's eyes were huge with a mixture of awe and fear. Shadia clutched the baby protectively.

Ashtroth held out his arms. "Please."

The Doctor gently took the swaddled baby from his aunt and handed him to the glowing man.

Klayisha broke out weeping.

Ashtroth unwrapped the babe and tossed the baby sheet to Jor. The Engineer cradled the child in the crook of his arm with his hand on the infant's stomach until the baby too began to glow.

"Klayisha, look!" Shadia pushed her weeping sister away and made her look at her child.

"He's a monster." The young mother wept with both love and despair.

"No!" The Doctor jumped forward forcefully. "Your baby is simply different, Klayisha. Look at him." The Doctor held out a finger and the baby grabbed it, pumping it heartily, and chortling, bright eyed and alert.

Klayisha held out a longing hand toward her baby. She stopped and looked up fearfully at Ashtroth.

"I am no demon, child, despite what you have been taught. I heard of your husband's death. I am sorry. But I will be your child's father now." He handed Joshia gently back to his mother.

"Will be the child's father?" the Doctor demanded, turning Ashtroth toward him by the arm. "I thought you said you were the child's father."

"So I am. So I am the father of all these." He waved his hand wide to encompass not only their small group but the whole ship.

"I think you'd better explain," Jor demanded.

"Yes. But not here. The child is well. Absorbing the laser fire gave him the energy boost he needed. Come." He turned. "I'll lead you to the others." A muffled explosion, reminiscent of the spontaneous combustions, rocked them on their feet. "Perhaps we can yet stop this madness."


	7. Chapter 7

"Nothing!" Ashtroth slammed his hand down on the table, rattling his test tubes. He'd led them to the Engineer's quarters, a hive of rooms hidden in the walls of the ship were the newest little Engineer had been received with much oohing and aahing. Ashtroth stood up from his microscope. The orange light in the room reflected off his contours like light off glass. Klayisha sat on a medical bed nearby, playing with the similarly glass-looking baby. Jor was leaning against the door frame, and Shadia was prowling the back of the room.

"What's wrong?" Klayisha asked. The bandage on the inside of her elbow showed where blood had been taken.

"I was so sure!" Ashtroth swore, running a hand through his invisible hair. "You are the only mother not to have died of the Madness after the birth of our child. I was certain you contained the cure, some immunity that could be imparted to the rest of the crew."

The Doctor looked up from the medical monitors he'd been studying. "It's too early to give up hope, Ashtroth. Maybe if you explain more. You admit that Klayisha's husband was Joshia's father. But you constantly refer to him as "our" child. You're these people's ancestor, aren't you? You and all the other Engineers."

Ashtroth rubbed his face warily. "Yes, Doctor. You're right. We don't age and die as our children do." He looked around mournfully at the humans present. "Centuries ago, before the sphere was created, our world was being destabilized by a chunk of black star matter that was passing through our system. The population was evacuated, but our space technology was not great and there weren't enough ships.

"But our doctors had made great strides in mutagenic research. As a last-ditch effort some of us volunteered to be changed in order to save our families. The spheres were hastily constructed, not much more than cocoons of earth, ore and minerals. With our new abilities to focus and manipulate energy we propelled the sphere away from our planet and away from the destructive effects of the black star."

"But stars are few and far between in this sector of space," the Doctor noted, watching Shadia from the corner of his eye. She was still prowling, muttering to herself, becoming more and more tense. "Habitable planets are sparse out here."

"Yes. In our desperation to flee our planet we didn't give our destination much thought. None of the planets we've found so far are suitable. But we keep looking."

"So, how is it that Klayisha gave birth to a child of your kind?" Jor asked.

"Recessive genes," Ashtroth replied. "At first we didn't look like this." He swept a hand down his transparent body. "It was several years before we realized the extent of our mutation. Children were born during that time."

Jor shook his head.

"It's no more unusual than two brown haired parents having a blond child," the Doctor explained, getting up. "Practical too. Engineers don't die of old age, but I'm betting accidents happen." He cocked an eyebrow at Ashtroth.

"Just so."

"Then they'd need replacements eventually." The Doctor explained to Jor. He hooked his leg over the corner of the examination table and leaned down to tickle the baby's tummy.

"So why does the birth of a baby like Joshia cause people to go mad? He didn't look like this at first." Klayisha asked.

"Hormones," the Doctor answered before Ashtroth could. "Assuming most of the population has recessive Engineer genes then the release of mutated hormones during such a baby's birth could conceivably trigger them. Especially since it would cause more of a change in a persons energy patterns than in their physical makeup. The maddened individuals would only have parts of your overall genetic structure." He aimed the comment at Ashtroth.

"Yes. Joshia inherited the entirety of our genetic coding, which is why he looks like us. The others have not."

"Which is why they go mad. It would be rather like being given half a rubber ball. You can bounce it. But the results are unpredictable," the Doctor finished.

"What about the people who explode?" Jor asked.

"My bet is that they've suddenly developed the ability to absorb energy. But since they don't know how to discharge it they subconsciously suppress it. Eventually it builds up to the point where it will no longer be contained and Boom!" He clapped his hands together with a sharp crack. "Fireball."

Shadia shrieked from the back of the room. Eyes mad, she flung herself over the table at Ashtroth. "Murderer!" The invisible man stumbled backward under her assault. He grabbed her wrists as she clawed at him, hissing and shrieking like an enraged jaguar.

The Doctor and Jor jumped forward to help but before they could do anything Ashtroth's body began to glow again. Just as the glow reached its peak the energy drifted forward, out of Ashtroth body, and into Shadia's which absorbed it.

Shadia stopped struggling and looked up in surprise at her manacled wrists. Ashtroth looked equally surprised, and a little stunned. "That's never happened before," he said with quiet shock.

The Doctor slapped his hands together. "Of course!"

"What?" Klayisha and Jor asked together.

"What these people need is not a way to suppress their reawakened genes. They need to learn to control their new abilities. To balance their energy."

"What do you mean, Doctor?" Jor asked.

"When Shadia attacked Ashtroth it was probably brought on by a gradual dissipation of her energy which caused paranoid dementia. Like what happens when people don't get enough sleep. When she drew the energy from Ashtroth it snapped her out of it.

"Don't you see? All we have to do is match people with opposite problems. They'll balance each other out. It'll work!"

"But what if they can't learn..." Ashtroth began.

"They can. Genetically, Klayisha is no different than Shadia." He pointed to the twin sisters. "Yet Klayisha learned to balance her energy while she was pregnant. That's why she didn't go mad like all the other mothers. It's not a matter of biology at all."

"You're right, Doctor. But how do we do it?"

"We can organize the people who are still sane. But you, Ashtroth, you and your fellow Engineers won't be able to hold yourselves apart anymore." The Doctor waved a hand to indicate the Engineer's secret rooms around them. "We'll need you to diagnose everyone's problems and you'll have to balance out the worst cases until they learn how to do it themselves."

"There are a lot of people still murderous with the madness, Doctor. We're hardly invulnerable. And most of this generation has been raised to view us as demons. Our very presence may push some over the edge."

The Doctor shrugged with a helpless grimace. "I never said it would be easy. Our first step is to get the Captain's cooperation."


	8. Chapter 8

"Shadia, Klayisha, we need to make this a two-pronged attack," the Doctor said. "Even if we can't get the Captain to cooperate, we need to get the word out.

"Shadia, can you work that communications equipment we found for Centerdome?" the Doctor asked.

"She can't, but I can." Klayisha said, standing up.

"Good, you and Shadia head there, take one of the Engineers with you. People need to know they're on our side. Tell everyone how to recognize the symptoms and what to do.

"Jor, Ashtroth and I will confront the Captain."

They split up. Klayisha kissed baby Joshia and handed him over to a group of eager Engineers. A younger Engineer lead Shadia and Klayisha off through the hidden hallways on their way to Centerdome.

The Doctor helped Ashtroth clear away his medical equipment. He noticed a small mirrored bowl, glanced at it for a moment, and slipped it in his pocket.

"Now where's the best chance of finding the Captain?" the Doctor asked.

"The Center." Jor answered. "Ever since the Madness started he's gone paranoid. He started having all his meetings in the Center, for safety's sake, so he said."

"Excellent." The Doctor waved a hand. "Lead the way."

Ashcroft led them through the energy corridors, occasionally having to stop to cancel or redirect energy beams to allow them to pass.

As they made their way through the darkness, lit only by Ashtroth's body, Jor asked. "Shouldn't Shadia and Klayisha be doing this, confronting the Captain? They _are_ his nieces."

The Doctor strolled along beside him, hands in his pockets. "Which is exactly why they aren't here. Sometimes it's easier to listen to a stranger. Besides, we really do need to get the word out."

"And if he won't listen to reason?" Jor asked. "What do we do then?"

"Oh, I doubt that will be a problem," the Doctor said. "We'll just back him up against a wall and have Ashtroth come through and grab him."

Jor laughed. Ashtroth grinned and opened up an archway into one of the public corridors. The Doctor looked back and forth between the two grinning men as Ashtroth closed the hole.

"What's the joke?" he asked, trudging up the hallway. Literally up. The gravity in the corridor seemed to be off-center, causing it to feel as if he was trudging uphill, the floor even had traction strips.

The corridor abruptly turned "downward", leveling out, and the gravity returned to normal. The corridor walls opened out like the entrance to a stadium. Bright light streamed through.

"He isn't in the Centerdome, Doctor." Jor said, smiling smugly. He waved out a hand grandly, and the Doctor stepped forward. "_This_ is the Center."

The Doctor looked up and a huge grin beamed across his face. Sunlight streamed down as he stepped out into a meadow. He looked up and out over two miles of space, past the sun, at the forest that grew up the curve of the far wall.

The center of the worldship was a Dyson sphere. A world within a world.


	9. Chapter 9

The entire interior surface of the sphere was covered with forests and meadows and cultivated land. In the exact center hung a blazing miniature sun. A band of three laser beams of golden energy lanced across space, from wall to wall, spearing the nuclear reactor sun, and disappearing back into the surface to be used in other parts of the ship.

The Doctor looked down at their immediate surroundings, Ashtroth and Jor watched him with matching grins. From the mouth of the corridor a woodland meadow stretched out on all sides.

Two small rabbit-like creatures stopped their browsing and looked up alertly before hopping off. A deer at the edge of the treeline turned and looked at them and then bounded into the trees.

The Doctor gazed out over the mass of space, past the sun, he took in the streams that meandered up the far wall, and a lake that shimmered in the distance.

As always in a Dyson sphere, he felt like he was standing on a slight hill, yet all the ground in the distance seem to be rising up. It was an optical illusion unique to enclosed environments like this, one the Doctor had always enjoyed. He bounced on his toes.

He turned back to Jor. "And here I was, assuming the Centerdome was in the center."

"It is," Jor said, sticking his hands in his back pockets. "It's the main Civic Center, the largest dome on the inner layer. But this is the heart of our world."

"Right, then." The Doctor clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Now all we have to do is find the Captain."

"And throw him to Ashtroth," Jor said.

Ashtroth shook his head. "I cannot pass through the soil here," he said. "The root systems are a web. I'd never get close enough."

Jor grunted and looked at the conspicuously shining Engineer. "Well, that nixes that idea," Jor said. "So what's Plan B?"

"Do we really need a plan?" the Doctor asked, rocking on his heels. "I usually just prefer to mess things up as I go along."

"You mean "make things up"," Jor corrected.

"That too."

Jor glared at him.

"Oh, all right." The Doctor held out his hands. "I'm your prisoner. If you can get me close enough to the Captain I can talk some sense into him."

Jor shook his head. "He won't listen."

"I can be very persuasive."

Jor sighed. "Fine. So I captured you," Jor acquiesced. "Why aren't you tied up?"

The Doctor handed him a pair of handcuffs.

Jor gave him an odd look. "You carry your own restraints?"

The Doctor turned his back and offered his hands. "I got them from a friend of mine, Houdini." He turned back around after Jor had fastened the cuffs in place. "You wouldn't have heard of him, but he was really good with handcuffs." The Doctor twisted his wrists and pulled his hands from behind his back. He handed Jor the open cuffs, grinning.

They discovered the Captain having a strategy meeting with five of his counselors in a grove. The six men in the clearing were conducting business standing in a wide circle, each spaced ten feet apart, well out of arm's reach. They were all keeping a wary eye on one another in case one of them went mad.

Jor and the Doctor knelt behind a bush watching. Jor cradled the rifle they'd taken from the body of a guard in one of the corridors. He clicked the handcuffs closed over the Doctor's wrists behind his back. They stood up and Jor poked the barrel of the gun into the Doctor's back, shoving him forward. "Get going."

The Doctor turned and glared at him, then gave him a worried glance, wondering if he'd turned. Jor smiled evilly.

Jor shoved the Doctor into the clearing. The Time Lord tripped on a tuft of grass and stumbled. "We caught him, Captain," Jor said. "He's the one that stole the baby." He hefted the rifle keeping it trained on the Doctor.

The silver-haired man at the head of the circle raised his head at Jor's approach. The Doctor had seen him before, in Klayisha's room.

"Good. Kill him. We have more important things to worry about."

"I say," the Doctor said, "that's not very civil. Don't you even want to know where the baby is?"

"I know where it is. I don't need you for that. Jor, get rid of him."

Jor shoved the Doctor forward, down on his knees in front of the Captain. "Captain, you're making a mistake," the Doctor protested. "I can help you. I know what's causing the Madness. With your cooperation..."

"Execute him," the Captain said calmly. He turned back to his councilors. Jor hefted his rifle and aimed at the Doctor's head.

Suddenly the Doctor burst up, his arms coming free of the cuffs, and leapt toward the Captain.

The Captain stumbled backwards in surprise. He started to raise his hands then suddenly froze. Ashtroth appeared behind him, going from invisible to visible as he started glowing gold, his arms clamped around the Captain, binding his arms to his sides.

But the Captain didn't absorb his energy the way Shadia had.

"Look out!" Jor yelled. "He must be an exploder!"

Ashtroth released the Captain abruptly, not wanting to overload him and cause him to spontaneously combust.

By this time the other councilmen had sprung into action. One had grabbed the Doctor, another had grabbed Jor, two had grabbed each other and were trying to bash one another's head against a tree and one was simply standing and watching everything, bored.

The Captain turned and saw Ashtroth, and ran away in horror.

The Doctor and Jor both struggled with their captors. "Don't let him get away! We need him!" The Doctor yelled. He twisted with a Venetian Aikido move and flipped his opponent over his shoulder. He ran to help Jor – who was caught in a headlock – and Ashtroth took off after the Captain.

Unexpectedly the Captain turned to confront him, threw up his hands and shot a screaming beam of energy at Ashtroth.

"Woah!" Jor, who had been following with the Doctor, jerked to a halt, eyes huge. The Doctor tripped over him and they both fell.

The killing bolt struck Ashtroth – but instead of absorbing it, the bolt refracted through his body, split into five lesser streams, and lanced out in five different directions, to hit the other five counselors, two of which had picked themselves up and were heading for the Doctor and Jor again.

Four of the counselors were stunned, two fell unconscious. The fifth, the bored one, exploded.

"Janes!" the Captain shouted, reaching out a helpless hand to his dead friend.

Eyes blazing with hatred he turned on Ashtroth, gripping his hands into fists – arcs of golden energy crackled around his hands.

"You damnable Demon!" the Captain swore. "This is all your fault. You couldn't just stay behind your walls and leave us alone. You had to impregnate my niece with your hellish spawn and release this curse on us again!" He raised his hands threateningly, apparently perfectly aware of the crackling energy at his command. "When will it be enough? How many have to die before you're satisfied?" The tears streaked down the man's face, but his eyes blazed. "Well, no more!" He threw up his hands and released a torrent of golden fire at the engineer, making his previous attempt look like the warning shot it had been.

Ashtroth stepped back, surprised. And braced himself.

"Ashtroth!" the Doctor yelled as the engineer was engulfed in a torrent of fire.

Ashtroth blazed brighter and brighter – yellow, gold, white with an alarming outline of red – becoming too bright to see, the grass around him charred and withered away and still the Captain poured power into him.

"It's too much. He can't take it," Jor said as the white outline began to take on an actinic purplish tinge.

"The energy's too chaotic, fire instead of light, he can't regulate it," the Doctor said, watching helplessly, pulling Jor back as the heat began to crackle and singe their eyebrows, their skin.

Suddenly Ashtroth stiffened and screamed, a high-pitched, ear slicing sound, and exploded.

The fire went straight up, piercing the heart of the sun.

Ashtroth, visible, his pink human skin charred at the edges, fell in a boneless heap.

The sun sputtered, flared, stabilized...

and went out.


	10. Chapter 10

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God," Jor muttered in the absolute blackness. There were no stars, no moon, no heat to warm his world, no energy to run it. The breeze stilled as hidden fans fell silent. He swore he could feel the gravity lessen as the great engines that kept his world spinning died. Stark silence, with even the animals frozen in suspended terror.

"What have you done?" Jor whispered.

The Doctor fished in his pockets and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He turned it on and the quiet whirring of it sounded abnormally loud in the silence. The blue tip was the only light in the world. Jor stared at it, mesmerized, his features highlighted blue, as Ashtroth's had once been cast in gold by the sacred energies of their world. The Doctor narrowed the beam and played it around. He found the Captain, fallen to one knee, head down, drained, but alive.

"How could you!" Jor ran over and slammed his fist into the older man's jaw.

The Doctor grabbed him from behind. "Leave it, Jor."

"You destroyed our world!" Jor heaved with terrified, angry breaths. Only the Doctor's cool, implacable hold kept him still. "If you weren't mad. I'd kill you." Jor spat.

The Captain looked up from his sprawl, his hand examined his jaw. The silver eyes he turned up to Jor were calm, and sad, and literally weighted with the weight of the world.

"He's not mad," the Doctor said. "Come away. Leave him for now," the Doctor said, tugging Jor away from the Captain who was sitting up and fingering his teeth.

He swung the torch around and played it over the grass, oddly colorless in the blue light, until they found the charred circle, and Ashtroth's body.

Jor fell to his knees beside his ancestor. "He looks so human," Jor said in sad surprise, looking at the pink skin and brown hair. He looked up hopelessly at the Doctor, tears glinting in his eyes. "He could be my uncle."

"He was," the Doctor said. He played the light quickly over Ashtroth's soot-edged form, then splayed it broader, over the clearing beyond. The other four men were starting to stir.

"What will we do now?" Jor asked hopelessly in the darkness.

"Something," the Doctor said definitely. "We'll do _something_, Jor," he said firmly, trying to give the younger man hope. "We're not dead yet."

Jor laughed, the sound bordering on hysteria.

"There's always a way if you look," the Doctor insisted.

Jor snorted listlessly.

"No," the Doctor said. He grabbed Jor's jaw and turned his head. "Look!"

A glimmer of white.

The Doctor turned off his sonic screwdriver.

Out from behind the trees they came, up from the depths of the tunnels, all across the surface of the world, some so far away above they might be stars.

Glowing angels of light.

A woman stepped out from behind a tree just beyond Ashtroth's body. She was perfectly formed, glowing with a pure white radiance. She knelt down and touched Ashtroth's shoulder gently, sadly.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" the Doctor asked softly.

She looked up at him, blue eyes visible in a moon-radiant face. "There is nothing you can do here, Doctor."

He nodded and stepped back.

Jor stared from her to the Doctor, whom he could see by her light. He didn't even object when the Captain joined them, standing in the circle of soft light.

The woman stepped over Ashtroth's body, straddling it protectively as she raised her hands above her head, palms pressed as if in prayer. She opened her mouth and sang out a long clear note. A melody with no tune, a tune with no melody, the sound swelling and echoing in the vast womb of their world, the sound picking up and answering as other notes joined in.

Each angel flared brighter as it joined the song, each unique note joining to weave a harmony the likes of which even the Doctor had never heard before.

And as the last note joined the song, the world went white.

"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I'd never have believed it," the Captain said, sitting at his desk, a mug of hot cof wrapped in both hands.

"I'm so sorry I didn't believe you, Klayisha." He reached forward and grasped his nieces' hands, both of them. "You too, Shadia. Once I realized what Joshia was. Once the Madness started... I knew the Engineers were real. As Captain I had to know. But all I could think was that the demons had violated you, forced you to bear their child. I should have believed you when you said Keldon was the father, but then when he..." he stopped and coughed back tears, Keldon had been like a son to him, his protégé. "When the Madness started," he rephrased, "I felt like I was the only sane man in an insane world. All I could think was that I had to stop it any way I could. Save as many as possible."

"By killing us?!" Klayisha demanded, pulling her hand from her uncle's and holding Joshia tighter to her.

"Not you. Never you. But I had to draw Shadia out; she'd gone into hiding as well."

"But you would have killed my baby," Klayisha said in deadly tones, glaring at her uncle.

His eyes fell before hers. "At the time, all I knew was that he was demon get, the cause of the Madness. I wasn't thinking of him as a person." The Captain looked at the sweet face of his great-nephew, the transparent features given color and form by the refraction of the pink blankets his mother have swaddled him in. "I know now it wouldn't have worked anyway."

"It wouldn't have worked anyway?!" Shadia quoted in disbelieving outrage. She reached over and slapped him on top of the head for his stupidity, disarranging his perfectly brushed silver hair.

He grinned, knowing he was forgiven.

"What happened in the Center anyway?" Klayisha asked. "We were busy at the communications booth when the lights went out."

"It was the most amazing thing," Jor said, plopping down in a chair beside them, leaning forward eagerly. "When the sun went out, all these Engineers started coming out of the claywork. I didn't realize there were so many. They arrayed themselves all around the Center. They linked up in a web, with harmonics, the most beautiful song you've ever heard. Apparently they're not just connected to the ship, they're also connected to _us_. All of us. They poured out energy, white beams meeting up at the heart. They were able to use the energy from us to restart the sun!"

He plopped his head down on the table dramatically, and shook it, still not believing what he'd seen. All those spears of white reaching out to the center, rekindling the sun.

"I've still got afterimages," he said prosaically, rubbing his eyes.

Shadia only grinned at him and ruffled his hair.

The Doctor smiled at the affectionate play and faded backward out of the room, expertly ducking around the door frame and finding his way back to the TARDIS.

As he trotted around the last corner, he saw the familiar blue shape. And ran right into an invisible, but very solid, back. "Sorry."

"No need," the disembodied voice said.

The Doctor grinned. Ashtroth deliberately glowed a brighter gold.

"I'm glad to see you're looking better," the Doctor said puckishly.

Ashtroth grinned wryly. "I'm lucky I'm not dead. If Lalia hadn't drawn the power up through me, I would be. The Captain was a surprise."

"We should have expected it," the Doctor said as he unlocked the TARDIS. "There were bound to be more than just two types of mutation. One with the ability to store and manipulate energy like you do was virtually inevitable."

"True. Although, it's the first time this has happened. The Maker only knows what mutations the next Madness will bring."

"Yes, well, at least this time you'll know how to handle it. With any luck, now the mutated victims will survive, the cycle might be broken."

"We can only hope, Doctor."

"Ah yes, hope." The Doctor dashed inside his ship, his voice echoing out the door, "An important thing, hope. Here." He stepped out holding a sphere, a fist sized glass globe with bubbles trapped inside. One of the bubbles was red.

"What is this?" Ashtroth asked, taking it.

"It's a map. Feed your energy through this and it will provide the coordinates for a habitable world. They're not plentiful out here, but they're all the more beautiful for the lack of messy neighbors. It's about three light years away. With any luck, Joshia will learn to run with a real world under his feet."

Ashtroth clutched the sphere. "Thank you, Doctor."

The Doctor shrugged as he stepped into the TARDIS. "What are friends for?"

—

THE END

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